Eurosphere agenda: …”who are Podemos?

Who are the people voting for Podemos? An analysis of election data reveals some surpising results…

I’ve be following the impact of the “Podemos” phenomenon on Spanish politics since the European elections late last May. It is not too much of an exaggeration to say that the effect has been revolutionary: the King of Spain has abdicated to ensure that the Succession Law required by the Spanish Constitution would be passed by an overwhelmingly friendly Parliament, something that could not be guaranteed after the next election given the mood of the country.
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One of the biggest surprises in the recent European elections has been the sudden rise of the Spanish party Podemos (“We Can”), which obtained 8% of the vote in Spain. Podemos is a 4-month old, leftist formation rooted in the indignados (15M) movement and led by the charismatic political scientist Pablo Iglesias, 35. The following passage (my rough translation) is from a thoughtful analysis of the elections published today by another 15M-based party, Partido X, which is currently critically reviewing its own campaign. It contains an intriguing reference to Podemos’ successful ‘transmedia’ approach worthy of further research and reflection.

“[…] Podemos have done a masterful, strategic job and have doubtless carried out the most intelligent and effective electoral campaign amongst all of us [new] contenders.

They have managed to anticipate and lay the groundwork thanks to the efforts of Pablo Iglesias and his colleagues with whom he created La Tuerka [a successful TV programme shown via YouTube] with great self-reliance and skill.

With this independent, original programme – a labour of love – they first carved out a sizeable niche audience, and then a space sustained by more resource- and infrastructure-rich media organisations such as HispanTV or [the online newspaper]Público. It was the latter media outlet that eventually became their headquarters, an outlet whose information flow they were able to directly shape, practically turning it into their campaign’s main communication media. Pablo Iglesias then participated as a skilful counterpoint in the political debates broadcast by the [conservative TV channel] Intereconomía, from which he made the leap into the [mainstream channels] Cuatro and la Sexta as a twice-weekly current affairs panelist, thereby creating a highly recognisable persona in his claims and demands.

It was only after all this groundwork was laid that Podemos attacked the electoral front, achieving a highly effective combination of TV work and a “transmedia” use of social media in order to feed back and replicate its message.”

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